The Royal Oak numbered 298 High Street it has now become 332.
Jane Boulton was the owner of the Royal Oak in the Lower High Street in 1891. The lease was taken by the Cheltenham Original Brewery. In those late Victorian times the annual rateable value of the Royal Oak, a licensed beer house, was £59.10s.0d. Fast forward twelve years to 1903 and all the details had changed. According to the licensing returns the Royal Oak was then fully owned by Mitchell & Butler, brewers of Cape Hill in Birmingham. The local brewery must have relinquished their lease or perhaps it had expired. What is more difficult to explain is a dramatic reduction in rateable value – dropping twelve pounds and five shillings to £47.5s.0d. (1903).
The pub was renamed the Irish Oak in the 1990’s. Is there such a thing as an Irish Oak?
The Irish Oak has closed and the building has been converted into a laundry and a a take-a-away (Garlic & Ginger).
Landlords at the Royal Oak include:
1830 Timothy Holdship
1841 Thomas Richards
1844 Richard Thomas (researched by Martin Edwards)
1870 F.R. Salter
1878 Frederick Hooper
1883 Henry Holland
1885 Wallace Taylor
1891 William Wallace Taylor
1902 William Howells
1903,1906 Albert Edwin Turner
1906 Albert Edward Turner
1919 Alfred Charles Dodwell
1926,1927 Daniel Blytheway
1939 Frank Barber
2000 Peter Surman
2005 Caroline Morrisey
